Increase and Spread

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

INCREASE AND SPREAD

Acts 12:24-25

24 But the word of God continued to increase and spread. 25 When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, they returned from Jerusalem, taking with them John, also called Mark.

NIV

We just saw a king who was praised as a god, be struck down, and apparently it was the worms that were eating at his body which caused him to die. That seems to be a very horrible death, just because he accepted being called a god and did not refute it or pass the praise on to God Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth. We might also imagine what all those people who called his words as words of a god thought when after they said it, and he accepted their praise, he fell down and worms ate him to death. Well, we really do not have to guess much as we see the word of God continued to increase and spread. What can we learn from this? As much as man might try to replace God with other gods, his word will always increase and spread. Man is but man, but God is the creator of man, and thus man is never equal to God and no matter what man endeavors to do, he can never extinguish the word of God. As great as this king Herod might have thought he was, he was no match for God. No matter how powerful anyone thinks they are, or how much influence they might be able to have on others, they are no match for God. In our society today there are those who would try their best to remove any reference to God from the public square, they will never stop his word from increasing and spreading because there are but men, and he is God. Who is equal to God?  Who can compare to God? None, no one, and so we can be assured his word will increase and spread. Does that require us to be the ones to do it? Are we part of his plan to increase his word and cause it to spread? It would appear that Paul and Barnabas as well as John Mark were certainly part of God’s plan to increase and spread his word. It also seems that many other of the Apostles and Disciples were a part of that plan, so it would make sense that we too as believers in the divine, in God almighty, the maker of heaven and earth would be a part of his plan for continuing to increase and spread his word throughout the world. We read those words of Jesus when he said, “Go” and we do make them personal, but are we going? Sure we do not travel abroad, as Paul did, but we are still going into parts of the world. We are going into all kinds of parts of our society, educationally, economically and socially. We come in contact with people from many different walks of life and each of us have the opportunity to increase and spread the word of God as we are empowered by the divine creator of heaven and earth. If we try on our own we might fall flat, but as we have the power of the Spirit, and if we avail ourselves to that power then we will not fail, we will indeed be a apart of the divine plan in causing his word to increase and be spread.  But if we just live our lives, being content to be saved, engrossed in our own situations we will not be a part of that plan. We may have allowed men to silence us, to snuff out our voice, keeping us from being a part of his plan. We cannot allow this to be the case, we must stand up and be heard, finishing our mission, then we can return to Jerusalem, the true Jerusalem, the new city coming down out of heaven. God will see to it that his word increases and is spread.